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The key to faster EMV transactions

Since the EMV liability shift took place in October of 2015, there have been healthy doses of concern among merchants and consumers regarding the speed of chip card transactions. U.S. consumers have long been accustomed to swiping magnetic-stripe cards at the terminal and putting them back in their wallets before the transaction is complete. Although chip and magnetic-stripe transactions are processed in essentially the same amount of time, the chip card does require a longer interaction with the terminal itself. Merchants are concerned about this because it’s causing longer checkout lines and angry customers.

There's a solution to speed up checkout times for chip transactions

Both Visa and MasterCard have announced solutions to help speed up the checkout times for chip transactions. Visa's solution is Quick Chip. MasterCard's is M/Chip Fast. Essentially, both of these solutions accomplish the same thing: they streamline the chip card payment experience while increasing protection for consumers with EMV chip card technology.

How does the solution work?

As with the standard EMV chip protocol, counterfeit protection is central to an M/Chip Fast/Quick Chip transaction through generation of a unique one-time cryptogram. Once the cryptogram has been generated by the card and delivered to the terminal, the card can be removed from the reader, prior to issuer updates—thereby reducing the card-in-reader time. The goal is to decrease the processing time of the transaction while also improving the cardholder’s perception of the time it takes to perform the transaction.